


We Cannot Live on Bread Alone

by Aposiopesis



Category: Legion of Super Heroes (TV)
Genre: ...there's a bread tag?, Bread, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Relationship, disclaimer: i am not a baker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 16:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12461730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aposiopesis/pseuds/Aposiopesis
Summary: So Brin likes to bake.





	We Cannot Live on Bread Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is a flash fic. I wrote it in a few hours, edited it the next day I had access.
> 
> Additional warnings: As the name and tags would suggest, this is about food. Also, there's a reference to canon partial nudity. Nothing more explicit than you see in the show.

The kitchen was quiet; nobody ever came in at this time of day. It wasn’t silent; Brin was kneading dough.

He heard the faint tap of someone landing from flight behind him. “Need something?” he asked.

Garth was leaning on the doorway, arms folded. “You’re _making_ bread? Seriously?”

Brin scattered flour on the countertop, trying to ignore the intruder. “Is there a problem?”

Garth walked over and put his hand on the counter, jerking it back when he realized it was covered in white powder. “You know you can get that stuff in the cafeteria, right? It takes ten seconds tops.”

“What if I don’t want the kind that takes ten seconds tops?”

Garth opened his mouth, then shut it again. “Can you even tell the difference?”

“If you have to ask, you’ve never had homemade bread.”

“Fair enough.”

Brin kneaded the dough for a few more minutes. He was wearing an apron over civilian clothes with the sleeves rolled up, and he had his hair tied back. Garth had never seen him with his hair tied back before. (Or in civilian clothes, unless he counted underwear, but that wouldn’t be fair. Anyway, he’d been focusing on Brin’s claws at the time.)

Brin molded the dough into a ball, covered it with towels, and put it into a drawer. “Set a timer for 50 minutes, will you?”

Garth picked up one of the kitchen timers covered in dents and scratches and set it. “So what do you do next?”

Brin walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs — the expensive kind from real chickens. “I make more bread.”

“Shouldn’t you finish what you started first?”

“It’s proving. Can’t bake it yet.” Brin cracked three eggs into a separate bowl with a practiced hand. He beat them without a mixer.

Garth raised an eyebrow. “You let it sit around?”

“Yep.”

“Wouldn’t you want to cook it as soon as possible if it’s raw?”

“Not if you want it to taste any good.” Brin was adding various things to the eggs every so often — some cloudy liquid, some sugar, some salt, some oil. “If you’re worried about germs, they die when it bakes.”

“This seems like a long wait for a couple loaves of bread,” Garth muttered.

Brin stared at him. “You can leave if you want.”

“N-no,” Garth sputtered, “I mean, you do this all the time?”

Brin snorted. “Well, sometimes I punch supervillains in the face.”

“You too, huh? Small world. Who taught you to bake, anyway?”

“I taught myself. Not just baking, either, though I like it the most.”

“Just you and a cookbook, huh?”

“There wasn’t that much to eat when Dad was busy, so I had to learn. It’s not like he was going to teach me, and by then, my mom was — she couldn’t either.”

Garth’s eyes softened. “Food is really important back home, so a lot of people know how to cook at least a little. My parents always said they were going to get around to teaching me how when they had time.”

“They didn’t have time?”

Garth looked away. “They didn’t get around to it.” He laughed, more out of reflex than humor. “Then I left, which would make it kind of hard.”

Brin frowned. “I guess it would.”

“What are you making now?” Garth asked, fumbling for a change of subject.

“Kalach.” Brin mixed some water into the bowl.

“Huh. Never heard of it.”

“It’s an old Earth bread. It was one of the first things I tried baking. I’ve memorized the recipe.”

“What’s it like?”

Brin shrugged. “A little sweet. You can have some once it’s done.” He put down the bowl. “If you’re going to keep asking questions, wash your hands and help me out.”

“Right.” Garth did as he was asked and stood by Brin. The two were close enough to touch if one of them reached out. “What do I do?”

“Mix the bigger bowl of flour into this.”

Garth poured all the flour into the mixture at once, creating a cloud that settled on him, Brin, and the countertop. “Whoops.”

Brin laughed. “I’d say you’re going to pay for that, but I think you actually got more on yourself than me.”

“Dork.”

“At least I’m a dork who can _bake_.”

Garth smirked. “Well then, you’ll just have to teach me, won’t you?”

“Sure. I’d like that. But I’m not going to eat your failures.”

“Hey!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it, please comment, leave kudos, and reblog it on Tumblr here! [[LINK]](https://aposiopesis-ao3.tumblr.com/post/166694100867/we-cannot-live-on-bread-alone-aposiopesis)


End file.
